Also of great importance: argument (laying out an insightful, significant step-by-step roadmap and supporting it well), cultural work (don’t leave that aspect of the assignment out), paragraph structure (using the MEAL plan) and prose quality, evidence presentation (summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting effectively), quality of analysis (showing your reader how your evidence citing supports your assertions), refutation of any threatening counterarguments, and mechanical correctness (correcting any issues marked on earlier papers). For this paper, choose one from the prompts below. Once you have chosen your prompt, you will need to develop your own unique approach to the topic, generating a focused, insightful argument that builds complexity through a series of assertions, from simpler foundations to nuanced, significant final points. This step-by-step or “staircase” argument should be laid out in a multi-sentence thesis roadmap, as illustrated in the Thesis Development Handout.
